mass email #?: "sun+beach=sunburn"
oooooooooooh oh oh...my skin is on fire.
after being in thailand a little over a week i have finally managed to see the beach! i have been either flying, driving, learning, teaching or planning every day since i got here, and today we were done work at 11am, so brandi (the other girl from canada...i will eventually omit this parenthetical redundance...) and i went to patong....the most touristy beach here on the island. it was about a 20 minute bus ride over the miserable hill, but once we are up there, you can see all over. people say phuket is flat...i am sorry my friends...ontario is flat. people say quebec has mountains...once again, these hills are twice the size of the pimples in quebec. and the roads are something to rmember. we were on a huge bus we caught in town here right by the school, and it was 15 baht to get to the beach...20 k. this, is a little over a quarter!!!!!!!!!!!!! we then had lunch at this raunchy restaurant filled with weiner schnitzel german slugging back the chang...complete with thai women. (i will explain this below...) but the pad thai was good. (i was under the impression pad thai is not served here, but i was wrong...it's just called something different..CHINESE NOODLES!!! HAHA.) after being stared at like baboons eating lice off each others heads, we went to the beach about 50m away, and rented a chair with umbrella and little thai man to move it when we wanted. haha. the lazy person's dream! the beach was beautiful, and i was convinced that since it wasnt too hot, i wouldn't be burned...so no need for sunscreen right? well, not quite. i am so burnt i have been sitting in my shbathroom (thanks elle) with the shower on (thais typically dont have heated water..sounds bad, but really, it's a blessing) trying to quench my skin. but it's on fire. everywhere but my torso and bum. quite lovely looking, but hurts like a thai bathroom. we sat next to a group of men who were staring, (farang--foreigners) and one spoke to me. they turned out to be from italy, and i put my italian to good use. i think there's something to be said about learning italian at western...i got off with little to no trouble!!! but being in phuket for them is difficult because they dont speak thai, and some thais will know a little english...but italians who dont speak a word of english are in for a rough time. so one of the men was so happy to have someone to talk to he didn't shut up for the whole two hours i were there!!!
anyway, the beach was so beautiful. i dont care what people say, patong may be touristy and a little more expensive, but it sure beats any other non-existant beach in north america!!! i went swimming for a little bit and had the italians watch my bag. all i could think of was my mother telling me not to leave my bag with anyone...for fear of drugs-in-bag-incident resembling bridget jones II or brokedown palace. but i checked, they only put a few in. while i was swimming, a group of muslim malays came over to the edge of the water and waited for brandi and i. when we got out, they all had cameras and wanted to have their photos taken with is. so we agreed and had a couple taken...not knowing why and frankly, quite uncomfortable...but the girls were so cute. and then we looked behind the girls, and there was a swarm of malay tourists running towards us in full dress (hello...HOT?) with cameras in hand. so we kindly ran away and hid under our umbrella. we then ran into a fellow from malasia who studied in kiwiland, and he said that it was because we weren't wearing our street clothes, brandi has blonde hair, and i have blue eyes. he said that they are not allowed to wear shorts or even a tank top. so we were like movie stars to them. anyway. made for an interesting day.
last night brandi and i finally went into town here to see what there is in way of nightlife. and well, there's not that much. the thing is, in thailand, people dont go to bars and get sloshed as done in north america and europe. they will buy a bottle of whisky for 200 baht (5 bucks) and bring it to a restaurant and drink it there all night. which brings me to another issue. eating out in thailand. when we eat out in north america, when the meal is over, people generally leave. not quite so in thailand. when the meal is over (which usually takes about an hour and a bit...you wouldn't believe how slow i have started eating...) people sit around, chew on leaves, suck on ice, stare at one another, and chat it up. this, lasts, ALL NIGHT. so when farang go to a restaurant and want the bill in a timely manner, the looks we get are hilarious. WHAT? YOU WANT TO LEAVE? but last night we went to a little irish pub that was beautiful. a swedish guy owned it (heaps of expats own bars, restaurants after coming here on vacation and then never going back...) and there were a couple other farang inside. one guy from ireland, a couple eastern european men...but it was quite lovely...and SO CLEAN! i am sure in north america we wouldn't think anything of it, but here, it is a palace! we got to chatting, and he (the owner) has "teacher tuesdays" when all the farang teachers on phuket head there for a chang-filled night and buffet, and a good time. i think i will head there this week...no school on wednesday or friday (holidays...oh how the thais love their holidays) and see who i can meet.
as for the farang men with thai women, well, the thing is this. most men that come here alone come here with a dovirce and a couple of kids under their belts, mostly from the uk. they come here on holiday looking for sun sand and chang, and notice how the thai women look at them. quite frankly, it's not out of admiration of their beauty (trust me, i have seen these men.) but of their wallets. a farang men can provide a beautiful life for a thai women who makes about 2000 baht a month (50 bucks). and the women here are so beautiful. so they take the women, most of whom dont speak english, and treat them well. thai women dote on them and do everything for them...cook, clean, a little lovin' here and there, and the thai men buy the women a pair of shoes once a year. the women dont work...the men have savings. and in the end, the woman usually gets pregnant, the man's return ticket expires, and he spends a second life here with his thai woman and his children he begins having (usually he has some who are about 15 in the uk already...) and he is stuck here until the kids go to school, and then he heads somewhere else. it's the same old story everywhere you go. really, it's prostitution. glorified "pretty woman" if you will....thai style. but it is a double edged sword. the men i do see here, who are beautiful, really have no interest in western women, because they are only looking for fun. they ignore the same old story, and think, 'that wont happen to me' but it always does. i should know...it happened to my boss.
moving on, i should get going. i am teaching again tomorrow...it went alright yesteday. stressful...as the kids have no idea what the hell i am saying, and it is everything in my power to not pick them up by the hair and shake them and say "SAY MY NAME IS TEAM!" (one of my students...the names are wicked.) but i will write more on the teaching aspect as i have time. it's going okay, and really, just okay. i am a decent teacher, but on the first day, yesterday, all the parents kids were sitting in. super wealthy chinese families....it was a little bit of pressure. i think i flashed one of the dads by accident. note to self...wear turtlenecks.
well thanks again for the emails, and please keep them coming.
gros bisous, and i miss you all heaps
heather
oh, and i figured out what you have to dial...i think...to reach me. it would be nice if my parents would call me one of these days. ahem.
001 66 76 07 894 9368
if that doesn't work, then try adding the 0 to the province code
001 66 076 894 9368
good luck!
after being in thailand a little over a week i have finally managed to see the beach! i have been either flying, driving, learning, teaching or planning every day since i got here, and today we were done work at 11am, so brandi (the other girl from canada...i will eventually omit this parenthetical redundance...) and i went to patong....the most touristy beach here on the island. it was about a 20 minute bus ride over the miserable hill, but once we are up there, you can see all over. people say phuket is flat...i am sorry my friends...ontario is flat. people say quebec has mountains...once again, these hills are twice the size of the pimples in quebec. and the roads are something to rmember. we were on a huge bus we caught in town here right by the school, and it was 15 baht to get to the beach...20 k. this, is a little over a quarter!!!!!!!!!!!!! we then had lunch at this raunchy restaurant filled with weiner schnitzel german slugging back the chang...complete with thai women. (i will explain this below...) but the pad thai was good. (i was under the impression pad thai is not served here, but i was wrong...it's just called something different..CHINESE NOODLES!!! HAHA.) after being stared at like baboons eating lice off each others heads, we went to the beach about 50m away, and rented a chair with umbrella and little thai man to move it when we wanted. haha. the lazy person's dream! the beach was beautiful, and i was convinced that since it wasnt too hot, i wouldn't be burned...so no need for sunscreen right? well, not quite. i am so burnt i have been sitting in my shbathroom (thanks elle) with the shower on (thais typically dont have heated water..sounds bad, but really, it's a blessing) trying to quench my skin. but it's on fire. everywhere but my torso and bum. quite lovely looking, but hurts like a thai bathroom. we sat next to a group of men who were staring, (farang--foreigners) and one spoke to me. they turned out to be from italy, and i put my italian to good use. i think there's something to be said about learning italian at western...i got off with little to no trouble!!! but being in phuket for them is difficult because they dont speak thai, and some thais will know a little english...but italians who dont speak a word of english are in for a rough time. so one of the men was so happy to have someone to talk to he didn't shut up for the whole two hours i were there!!!
anyway, the beach was so beautiful. i dont care what people say, patong may be touristy and a little more expensive, but it sure beats any other non-existant beach in north america!!! i went swimming for a little bit and had the italians watch my bag. all i could think of was my mother telling me not to leave my bag with anyone...for fear of drugs-in-bag-incident resembling bridget jones II or brokedown palace. but i checked, they only put a few in. while i was swimming, a group of muslim malays came over to the edge of the water and waited for brandi and i. when we got out, they all had cameras and wanted to have their photos taken with is. so we agreed and had a couple taken...not knowing why and frankly, quite uncomfortable...but the girls were so cute. and then we looked behind the girls, and there was a swarm of malay tourists running towards us in full dress (hello...HOT?) with cameras in hand. so we kindly ran away and hid under our umbrella. we then ran into a fellow from malasia who studied in kiwiland, and he said that it was because we weren't wearing our street clothes, brandi has blonde hair, and i have blue eyes. he said that they are not allowed to wear shorts or even a tank top. so we were like movie stars to them. anyway. made for an interesting day.
last night brandi and i finally went into town here to see what there is in way of nightlife. and well, there's not that much. the thing is, in thailand, people dont go to bars and get sloshed as done in north america and europe. they will buy a bottle of whisky for 200 baht (5 bucks) and bring it to a restaurant and drink it there all night. which brings me to another issue. eating out in thailand. when we eat out in north america, when the meal is over, people generally leave. not quite so in thailand. when the meal is over (which usually takes about an hour and a bit...you wouldn't believe how slow i have started eating...) people sit around, chew on leaves, suck on ice, stare at one another, and chat it up. this, lasts, ALL NIGHT. so when farang go to a restaurant and want the bill in a timely manner, the looks we get are hilarious. WHAT? YOU WANT TO LEAVE? but last night we went to a little irish pub that was beautiful. a swedish guy owned it (heaps of expats own bars, restaurants after coming here on vacation and then never going back...) and there were a couple other farang inside. one guy from ireland, a couple eastern european men...but it was quite lovely...and SO CLEAN! i am sure in north america we wouldn't think anything of it, but here, it is a palace! we got to chatting, and he (the owner) has "teacher tuesdays" when all the farang teachers on phuket head there for a chang-filled night and buffet, and a good time. i think i will head there this week...no school on wednesday or friday (holidays...oh how the thais love their holidays) and see who i can meet.
as for the farang men with thai women, well, the thing is this. most men that come here alone come here with a dovirce and a couple of kids under their belts, mostly from the uk. they come here on holiday looking for sun sand and chang, and notice how the thai women look at them. quite frankly, it's not out of admiration of their beauty (trust me, i have seen these men.) but of their wallets. a farang men can provide a beautiful life for a thai women who makes about 2000 baht a month (50 bucks). and the women here are so beautiful. so they take the women, most of whom dont speak english, and treat them well. thai women dote on them and do everything for them...cook, clean, a little lovin' here and there, and the thai men buy the women a pair of shoes once a year. the women dont work...the men have savings. and in the end, the woman usually gets pregnant, the man's return ticket expires, and he spends a second life here with his thai woman and his children he begins having (usually he has some who are about 15 in the uk already...) and he is stuck here until the kids go to school, and then he heads somewhere else. it's the same old story everywhere you go. really, it's prostitution. glorified "pretty woman" if you will....thai style. but it is a double edged sword. the men i do see here, who are beautiful, really have no interest in western women, because they are only looking for fun. they ignore the same old story, and think, 'that wont happen to me' but it always does. i should know...it happened to my boss.
moving on, i should get going. i am teaching again tomorrow...it went alright yesteday. stressful...as the kids have no idea what the hell i am saying, and it is everything in my power to not pick them up by the hair and shake them and say "SAY MY NAME IS TEAM!" (one of my students...the names are wicked.) but i will write more on the teaching aspect as i have time. it's going okay, and really, just okay. i am a decent teacher, but on the first day, yesterday, all the parents kids were sitting in. super wealthy chinese families....it was a little bit of pressure. i think i flashed one of the dads by accident. note to self...wear turtlenecks.
well thanks again for the emails, and please keep them coming.
gros bisous, and i miss you all heaps
heather
oh, and i figured out what you have to dial...i think...to reach me. it would be nice if my parents would call me one of these days. ahem.
001 66 76 07 894 9368
if that doesn't work, then try adding the 0 to the province code
001 66 076 894 9368
good luck!
posted by isobella at 9:12 AM
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